Swirl marks, fuzzy stain, and edges sanded round — nearly every sanding disappointment traces back to three habits. Get grit progression, pressure, and dust control right and any decent sander delivers a finish you would swear was sprayed.
Climb the grits, don’t skip them
Each grit’s job is to erase the scratches of the previous one. Jumping from 80 to 220 leaves deep grooves the fine paper only polishes. For raw wood, walk 80 → 120 → 180, and stop at 220 only for film finishes. Between coats, a light 320 scuff is plenty.
Let the sander do the pressing
Bearing down feels productive; it actually slows cutting, overheats paper, and dishes the surface. Guide a random-orbit sander with flat, even passes at a slow walking pace, and let a detail sander’s tip do corners instead of tilting the pad.
Control the dust
Dust packed into paper acts like extra-coarse grit and scratches the work. Empty the dust box often, hook up a vac when you can, and wipe down with a tack cloth before checking your progress — half of all “bad finishes” are just dust you sanded back in.
Check with raking light
Hold a lamp low across the surface before you call it done. Raking light exposes every missed scratch while there is still time for one more pass at the current grit — not after the stain makes it permanent.
Sand it right
Detail sanders, paper assortments, and dust control.